Page 68 of The Red Queen

“Get on the bed, Desi.” Without waiting for her to comply, he gripped her by the neck, swung her around, and shoved her down on the bed, her back hitting the mattress.

Desi screamed as she felt a tearing sensation at her side. The bandage had come partially untaped, and the wound had reopened.

Giovanni either didn’t know or didn’t care because he dropped down on top of her and yanked her arms over her head, pinning them. “Open your legs. You think you know the truth? You think I want you only for the babies I will give you? Here is my truth.”

Desi sobbed and tried to pull her arms down to hit out at him, but his grip was too tight, too expert. She couldn’t break it. She tried to bite him, but he shoved her head to the side and used his elbow to shove her face into the bedding while still holding her wrist.

He reached between them, and she heard a zipper.

“Don’t!” she screamed, the sound muffled.

His entry wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Desi was wet. She might be angry, she might hate him with every fiber of her being, but she still responded to his brutally handsome features, to the power that emanated around him, the scent that wrapped around her and held her in thrall.

He didn’t stop until he bottomed out. Then he held himself still, rising above her. He slid his fingers into her hair and dragged her head up, forcing her to look at him.

“You are mine, Desi.”

“I’ll never be yours.” Her voice was hoarse from pain and tears.

“You are mine,” he repeated, then moved inside her.

Though her body wanted to follow, to lift and fall in rhythm with his strokes, she forced herself to remain still, to take his cock without feeling the soaring pleasure he was always so careful to give her.

The memory of his careful, passionate loving brought tears to her eyes. Gone now, to be replaced with this cold, brutal lover.

He brought his face down to hers, his gaze unrelenting as it held hers captive, his body moving over hers in a passionless fuck.

“You will have my baby.” His voice was clear and uncompromising. “You will live with me, you will work with me and you will stay in this house until the day you die.”

She glared daggers up at him. “I hate you.”

“You hate yourself,” he countered, grunting as his cock flared inside her. “It’s time to stop, Desi.”

“You don’t know anything!” she cried, thrashing as his seed spilled within her, flooding her with warmth and shame at the same time. It was the first time since Nico that she’d felt this way, and it was awful.

He was right. She hated herself. She hated herself for being too weak to fight him off, for being stupid and believing him. For being too blind to work out why she’d been brought to Italy. She hated herself for… everything.

A sob escaped her and the moment he pulled out and released her, she rolled onto her side and curled in a ball.

He stood, but she refused to look at him. She heard rustling and assumed he was getting undressed. When he climbed into the bed once more, he pressed himself against her, his naked chest brushing her back. His fingers traced a path down her side, hovering over her bandage.

“You’re bleeding.”

Desi didn’t say anything as he climbed off the bed, strode into the ensuite washroom and returned with a First Aid kit. She didn’t move when he untaped her bandage, cleaned the wound, and taped it back up. She allowed him to roll her onto her stomach so he could do the same with the exit wound.

When he finished, he pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “I’m sorry I hurt you, Desi. That was never my intent.”

“You told me I could trust you and I believed you,” she whispered, staring at the wall, despair pressing in like a wall of thick black tar filling her veins. “That’s why I’m angry. You’re the liar and I’m the fool.” She rolled over to look at him. “Maybe we deserve each other. Maybe this is payback for a lifetime of sin.”

His eyes gleamed in the shadows, and she flinched when he reached out to touch her, smoothing the hair away from her forehead and leaning forward to kiss her. She held still, not wanting to anger him again, not wanting more of his harsh brand of love.

“If this is payback for my sins, then I have nothing to regret,bella.” His voice was low, his words a warm caress.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Desi stood in the center of her bedroom, looking around in confusion. It was empty. Or at least empty of all her things. The bed had been stripped and the vanity desk and chair were missing. When she opened the door to the closet, she discovered her clothes were gone as well. A brief check of the bathroom told her everything had been moved, including her toiletries.

She’d slipped from Giovanni’s bed and wandered down the hall to her room, intending to take a shower and get changed.

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